Newtown Shooting the Worst Day of His Presidency, Obama Says

President Obama said Sunday that the day of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was the worst of his presidency and that he wanted new legislation limiting access to some types of firearms passed within the first year of his second term.

“I think anybody who was up in Newtown, who talked to the parents, who talked to the families, understands that something fundamental in America has to change,” Mr. Obama said on NBC News program “Meet the Press.” “And all of us have to do some soul searching, including me as president, that we allow a situation in which 20 precious small children are getting gunned down in a classroom.”

He said that he would wait for a report from a task force chaired by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. before proposing specific legislation. But he said he had long supported a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips as well as expanded background checks as a way to ease gun violence in America.

The shooting in Newtown, where 20 elementary schoolchildren and six adults were killed in a matter of minutes by man with an assault rifle, has renewed a national debate about gun control.

Mr. Obama said shortly after the shooting that gun control would be a “central issue” of his second term. Though some gun-control opponents have said they would be open to discussions about the issue, most have made clear they would oppose any legislation restricting gun ownership.

Leaders of the National Rifle Association and gun control opponents in Congress have said they are not interested in cooperating with Mr. Biden’s task force and have vowed to fight efforts to impose some type of ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines like those used in the Newtown shooting.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

He said no major changes in the nation’s gun laws were possible without the strong support of the American people, but added that he believed most Americans, including gun owners, supported some type of legislation to restrict access to firearms.

“I think there are a vast majority of responsible gun owners out there who recognize that we can’t have a situation in which somebody with severe psychological problems is able to get the kind of high-capacity weapons that this individual in Newtown obtained and gun down our kids,” he said.

In a separate interview on Sunday, Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, said any legislation would require grass-roots support, along with a respect for the rights of gun owners.

“I view when the conversation starts, as this conversation started, with a respect for the Second Amendment and a recognition that there is a value system attached to it that is important,” Mr. Vilsack said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It starts with the recognition that people do hunt, and that that’s important to them — 38 percent of America either hunts or fishes.”

Mr. Obama said he would put forward a specific proposal based on recommendations from Mr. Biden’s task force and lean on Congress to pass legislation within the first year of his term.

“The question then becomes whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts way,” Mr. Obama said, speaking of the Newtown shooting.